joining us now, paul crookshank and fran townsend, dana bash. jill, what is the latest you're hearing from the state department? 21 posts closed in 17 countries. how credible a threat is this? >> they believe it definitely is credible. they say they're taking it very seriously. in fact, the number of countries where those embassies and consulates are being temporarily shut down could increase, and the length of time which they are shut down could increase, as well. what they're saying is, in light of benghazi, and i think you're going to hear the word benghazi quite a bit, they out of an abundance of caution, are taking these steps. it refers to routine things that happen at the embassy, but they do say for americans that if there is an emergency, they can get in touch with the embassy. that is not a problem. but they're urging americans, if they're traveling to that region, to register for this program that they have called s.t.e.p. you can get texts and e-mail messages realtime about the threat that's out there and anything happening, country